High Wind Knocks Out Power for 760 In Birmingham

At least 760 DTE Energy customers in Birmingham woke up without power Tuesday morning as high winds from Hurricane Sandy continued to whip through Metro Detroit.

The largest outage area, according to the DTE Energy outage map, is concentrated west of downtown, stretching all the way from Quarton to Lincoln and affecting much of the Quarton Lake neighborhood to the homes east of Seaholm High School.

According to the outage map, 680 customers are impacted by that area outage. The power went off around 9:30 p.m. Monday and there are currently no restoration times.

An additional 96 customers are without power in the city's northeast corner, just south of Big Beaver but west of the railroad tracks. Restoration times are not available for that outage either.

In total, DTE told Fox 2 News that 51,000 of its 2.1 million customers across southeast Michigan are without power Tuesday morning.

A wind advisory for Oakland County is expected to last through 1 p.m. Tuesday, bringing with it wind speeds up to 50 miles per hour. These winds could cause hazardous situations, including power outages, downed tree branches and difficulty driving, especially on east-west roads.

DTE Energy spokesman John Austerberry said that the Michigan-based gas and electric company are anticipating potentially-long outages.

DTE has released around 100 contract line crews to assist with expected major outages on the east coast as Sandy hits. However, DTE's own crews will be staying in Michigan.

"We have not sent any of our own crews because we want to see what happens with the weather here," Austerberry said.

To prepare for high winds, Michigan residents are encouraged to use precaution while driving—especially high-profile vehicles. Additionally, residents are encouraged to move trash cans, lawn furniture, Halloween decorations and other outdoor items into their garage or home.

Tuesday, Birmingham residents can expect rain possibly mixed with snow all day, becoming all rain in the afternoon, the National Weather Service says. The high will be 44 degrees with sustained winds between 23-25 miles per hour. Wind gusts could reach 31 miles per hour.